Sunday Evening Devotional: You Don’t have to be Perfect to Receive Revelation from God

I was emailing Mormon Heretic who also contributes over at the Wheat and Tares blog and he had a great idea about a Sunday Devotional. So giving credit where credit is due, this devotional idea is actually inspired by his email. I thought I would start sharing an evening thought each Sunday about an insight from the week or something I learned in Church.

Receiving Revelation from God

Each Sunday, the men’s group has a 1 hour meeting during the third hour of church right after Sunday School. The group I am in is called Elder’s Quorum.

Today the discussion was on how to recognize and receive revelation from God.

One comment that was made stood out to me. The Elder in our group shared an experience where he felt that as long as we are doing “all the right things” we will be in the position to receive revelation from God. According to him, the “right” things included going to church, reading scripture daily, praying, and trying to be perfect essentially in word and deed.

I argued that while doing those things is good, God can and will give revelation to anyone based on how He views them and feels that they will respond after the revelation is given and received.

We see in the scriptures (i.e. Paul in the Bible, Alma in the Book of Mormon) where people who were complete sinners who were in complete rebellion towards God. Yet they received revelations in the form of visions from God. These examples blow the theory out of the water that we need to be doing all the “right” things to receive revelation. Once they received the revelation, they opened their hearts completely to God and were humbled.

I shared a personal example of when I was off track and in rebellion towards God and received a dramatic revelation that changed my life. This is the main reason why I attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon Church).

To be fair to my friend in Elder’s Quorum, I have also received revelation when I was doing all the “right” things such as praying, scripture study, church attendance, etc. and I do think that when we are trying to tune our lives in with God, we will be doing those things. However, some people who haven’t experienced communication from God are also entitled to revelation from God and God will choose who He wants to reveal truth to. Just because we are doing all the “right” things doesn’t necessarily guarentee that we will receive revelation.

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2 comments

Your post made me sick to my stomach not because of how well it was written and the beautiful way you captured your Elder’s quorum discussion, but rather because of the pride in our righteousness we’ve come to accept as OK within the church.

We Mormons somehow feel we are doing “all the right things” when there is more than ample evidence all around us that there is plenty more we could and should be doing. Has poverty been wiped out? Are there no disputes amongst us? Do we have all things in common? Do we all deal justly with one another?

The answer is a flat out no! Until we meet this high bar put forth in the scriptures, I would suggest we are not DOING all the right things and we spend less time patting ourselves on the back and instead put forth a bit more effort exhibiting the humility of Nephi in the 4th Chapter of 2nd Nephi when he cries “O wretched man that I am!”

While it can be reasonably argued we are a people who sincerely strive to be righteous, what can’t be said, at least not yet, is we’ve perfected the pursuit of perfection. We’ve been given much more in the way of insights, ordinances and truth than our friends and neighbors not yet members of the church. As a result much more is expected of us. We, like Nephi, fall woefully short of even the lowest standards of perfection.

Yet, somehow and despite our weaknesses and shortcomings our Heavenly Father loves us still and through the Atonement and the resulting Grace, offers to turn our sins from crimson to white and promises that if we endure and continue to “TRY his works to do,” the Holy Ghost will be our constant companion and we’ll receive revelation along the way, as needed, to light our path.

Thank you again for your posts each week. I don’t often comment but I read them all. Your perspective is appreciated.

I agree with the elder who said, in effect, that the more we do all the right things, the more in tune we will generally be to the Father’s guidance. However, AMA adds an important amendment to that.

I’ve noticed in my life that the results of my requests of God are more definite when my sincerity or level of desperation is greater.
And of course, as AMA indicated, God can knock rebellious people off their donkeys, such as with Balaam (Numbers 22)!